Victims Of Foreclosure Fraud Can’t Cash Reimbursement Checks

Could federal regulators and their cast of private contractors possibly do a worse job of getting relief to families who were wronged during the foreclosure crisis?

First, private contractors botched their initial review of banks’ foreclosure files. Then, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency cut a bad deal with mortgage servicers that pays very little – about two-thirds of borrowers will receive only $300.

Apparently, in order for borrowers to cash the compensation checks they received, their bank must contact Rust Consulting, the company handling the distribution of compensation funds for the U.S. government in order to verify the checks are cashing. However, when these banks followed typical protocol and contacted the bank issuing the checks, Huntington National Bank, the issuing bank was unable to verify and give approval to cash the check.

In the grand scheme of things, this bureaucratic slip-up can be resolved fairly easily, and the Federal Reserve has assured the public that borrowers should be able to access their compensation going forward. However, this most recent debacle underscores how this entire process has failed millions of families who have already lost their homes and savings during the foreclosure crisis.

A major problem throughout this process has been poor communication and outreach to borrowers. Last summer, the General Accountability Office reprimanded the OCC for ineffective outreach to more than 4 million borrowers who could be eligible for compensation. What’s more, the closed review process by the bank contractors – for which reviewers were paid more per hour than most borrowers will end up getting in total compensation – offered borrowers no opportunity to provide additional information as the contractors were determining whether or not they were wronged and if so, the amount of compensation they were owed.

As that review process became increasingly costly and bogged down, the OCC made a deal with 13 banks which, yet again, provides little meaningful redress to the vast majority of those whose foreclosure were mishandled.

Perhaps it could be amusing – or even inspire a comedy TV show – if a small-town sheriff was bungling its affairs this badly. But it’s no laughing matter when the primary federal regulator of big-bank safety and soundness and its high-priced contractors look like the Bad News Bears.